Ram assemblies for evacuating fluid materials from bulk containers have been used for many years. In the past, such bulk containers have been mainly cylindrical with a round ram plate which is forced downwardly into the container having a pump attached to an opening, therein for evacuating the material from the container.
Recently, material suppliers have begun to supply material in square or other non-round containers which have corners. This has presented several problems. First of all, many such square shipping containers are not made to very tight dimensional tolerances and it is thus difficult to provide a mechanism which will consistently evacuate those containers. Secondly, a square sided container does not have the structural stability of a round container, that is, the sides of a filled box will bow outwardly to varying degrees depending on the container's construction.
The corners of a square container filled with a high viscosity fluid present a sealing problem when an attempt is made to use a ram plate. Further, bulk containers that vary in size present a locating problem because the container must be centered, not just located with stops built into the base of the machine.